Whatbird.com

It appears to be academic, as the system won't even let me post a photo in those threads.  At least the one I tried (Mountain Chickadee).  It says I don't have those rights.  So I guess those hundreds of threads will just sit there with zero replies.  Seems a shame to have a completely useless section taking up space.

I thought you could post a question or comment (just without a photo).

Right -- I was responding to the idea that one way that section could actually be useful was if there were pictures of the bird that was the topic of the thread. 

The current system -- which allows only questions or comments -- has resulted in no posts for virtually all of those threads, so there's room for improvement.  As an example, the Mountain Chickadee thread was created on 1-31-07, so it is approaching three years without a single post.  Perhaps allowing photos so people could have a thread where they could find numerous photos of a single species in a single place to help with their IDs would make those (currently pointless) threads more valuable.

http://www.whatbird.com/forums/forums/post/8040.aspx

Just clarifying.  I agree that they're next to useless as they are.

My guess is they were looking for a way to allow posting comments on the main species pages, but they weren't able to do it on the page itself.  So, the best they could come up with was to create a forum thread for each species and start each one with a link to the corresponding species page.  It's a decent enough idea, but it's just too clunky to be useful in practice.

Changing a line of code to allow pictures would take minimal effort.  The issue may be disk space.(?)  With all the potential shortcomings noted, it would be nicer to have a picture posting ability than status quo.  There are many people in our community that have that rare shot they would love to post in this section of the site.  About 25% of the species I have photographed are excellent pictures, I also have many juveniles and females. It is strange how I have to go to another bird site to get this feature.     

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Latest Birds: Black-throated Green Warbler, Pine Warbler, Eastern Kingbird, Rufous-backed Robin, Crissal Thrasher

Matt:

it would be nicer to have a picture posting ability than status quo

Perhaps, but it doesn't really matter how trivial the task is.  You still need a moderator/administrator to change the account and forum permissions, and we don't have one.

I was confused then.  I thought changing a line of code would be a programming job and that on-going review of messages belongs to a moderator.  I assumed that there is still a programmer involved (fix of prior virus issues).  As higher level software is developed the distinction between what an administrator would do vs a programmer becomes blurred.  I made the bad assumption that changing a forum permission (universal rather than by account) could easily be done with minimal programmer effort.  The disagreement is in the potential outcome, ie. more harm than good would occur if opened without a moderator.     

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Latest Birds: Black-throated Green Warbler, Pine Warbler, Eastern Kingbird, Rufous-backed Robin, Crissal Thrasher

All of this is beside the point if there's nobody minding the store at some level.  If tinkering with some code to allow pictures is too much to ask, then it really doesn't make sense to even ask the question of how the site can be improved. 

And, by the way, this is what photos in the single species thread could look like:

http://www.whatbird.com/forums/forums/thread/118355.aspx

I think that would be a great addition. 

both points agreed to, well said

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Latest Birds: Black-throated Green Warbler, Pine Warbler, Eastern Kingbird, Rufous-backed Robin, Crissal Thrasher

JAC6:

And, by the way, this is what photos in the single species thread could look like:

http://www.whatbird.com/forums/forums/thread/118355.aspx

I think that would be a great addition. 

Indeed, a very compelling argument  

If I am correct, even having a moderator doesn't help.

http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/531/overview/Yellow-headed_Blackbird.aspx

Check out the fourth picture, looks like a female red-winged.

Yet one more argument for opening the comment forum to enable the upload of pictures.

 

 

 

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Latest Birds: Black-throated Green Warbler, Pine Warbler, Eastern Kingbird, Rufous-backed Robin, Crissal Thrasher